There was a time long ago when I was dismissive about the best action cameras, especially when the best camera phones offered me just as much utility. However, my stance has shifted the more I got to use action cams — and the GoPro Hero 13 Black continues to prove that to me.
The newest member in GoPro's lineup isn’t just your ordinary iterative update. While it shares the same design as last year’s Hero 12 Black, GoPro turbocharges the Hero 13 Black with more accessories, an easier way to mount it, deeper shooting modes to cover all your needs, and a battery life that can handle everything you throw at it.
Yet, for me to grasp the new changes, the only way to do that is to do the most GoPro thing ever — jet skiing around the island of Manhattan. Before I get to all the best parts of the GoPro Hero 13 Black, here’s a quick refresher on everything new about it
GoPro Hero 13 Black: All the big changes
- Burst Slow-Mo up to 400 fps: For those moments you want to slow down, the GoPro Hero 13 Black can record up to 400 frames per second at 720p.
- Power efficient Enduro battery: A new 1,900 mAh Enduro battery is 10% larger than the battery in the Hero 12 Black, giving it a boost of up to 28% runtime when recording at 4K 60 fps.
- Magnetic latch mount: In addition to the fold-down mounting fingers and ¼-20 mounting threads, you can now easily mount the GoPro Hero 13 Black with its quick-release magnetic latch.
- GPS: GoPro removed GPS from the Hero 12 Black, but it’s now back with the Hero 13 Black to geotag all your clips locally.
- Faster Wi-Fi 6 connectivity: Upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 on the Hero 13 Black, you can expect up to 40% faster transfer speeds when downloading clips to your mobile device.
- More lenses to choose from: Video shooters can access new shooting methods with the GoPro Hero 13 Black with new lenses for ultra-wide, macro, anamorphic, and ND filters.
- HLG HDR Video: Gain wider color gamut using 10-bit hybrid-log gamma recording to color grade high fidelity footage.
Seeing the world in ultrawide
What better way to test out the new Hero 13 Black by putting it to the test while jet skiing around Manhattan? Usually, I stick to the standard lens for anything action-oriented, but since I wanted to remember this activity, the only way to do that was to swap it for the new $99.99 ultra-wide lens mod — which extends its field of view to 177 degrees.
All of the new lenses don’t come cheap, but there’s no comparison between the before and after shots and the standard and ultra-wide lenses. With the GoPro Hero 13 Black strapped onto my chest for that perfect first-person PoV, I fell in love with how the footage covers more of the scene in front of me while riding the waves. It’s like seeing the world through a crystal ball, making the footage look more immersive and epic.
I’m also astounded by how the footage looks fluid and stable, even through all the times when I slammed into cross waves that had me briefly flying through the air. Sure, the horizon looks crooked a bit in the footage above, but a quick edit in the Quik app levels it for me. The new magnetic latch makes it even easier to connect and remove the camera from the mount.
Closer and slower
Back on land after jet skiing for about 2 hours, I swapped over to the new $129.99 macro lens to see what I could capture. This new lens has a minimum focus distance of 4.3 inches (11 cm), which is technically 4x closer than the standard lens.
Pairing this with its new Burst Slo-Mo mode, I captured the creation of these bubbles in the clip above with outstanding quality. It’s unbelievable that this tiny action camera can shoot at the blistering speed of 400 frames per second at 720p.
The bubbles produced look amazing up close, but are made more epic thanks to the slow motion applied to the clip later in the app. It’s just unbelievable because the original clip was no longer than a couple of seconds, yet it's been slowed down to see each bubble formed in all of its glory. I haven't come across this kind of stuff in an action camera.
Endurance to last a while
By the end of my jet skiing excursion that took me as far south to the Statue of Liberty and then north very close to the George Washington Bridge, the GoPro Hero 13 Black’s battery was nearly depleted. I was surprised it still had gas left in the tank, considering I was recording continuously for several minutes at a time. At one point, I even recorded a timelapse clip uninterrupted for 9 minutes straight before stopping it.
If I were to exclusively record at 4K 30fps, which is what I think is the optimal shooting mode for GoPros, the Hero 13 Black can last upwards of 104.6 minutes. That’s a long stretch for something this tiny and compact, so there’s little worry if you’re the kind of shooter who tends to let the camera roll for longer — rather than short bursts at a time. The above clip exemplifies this because it’s a shorter snippet from the 7+ minute clip I shot.
This was the last stretch before getting back to our starting point, and as you can see from the HDR video, the Hero 13 Black does an excellent job of neutralizing the exposure across the entire scene. Even when the sun’s beaming its light straight into the camera’s lens, the sky isn’t totally blown out like on other cameras — and instead — all the clouds in the sky remain visible.
There’s also a cheaper Hero
I’m happy to report that the Hero 13 Black maintains the same $399.99 cost as its predecessor. I think the upgrades are well worth it here, especially if you’re using a GoPro that’s more than a couple of years old at this point. Preorders are available starting today, with general availability slated for September 10.
If your budget’s tighter, there’s also the $199.99 price Hero — the smallest and simplest 4K capable action cam in GoPro’s lineup. It’s launching alongside the Hero 13 Black and makes the necessary trade-offs, like not having a front-facing display, but it still packages everything you’ll need in a starter action camera. They include a waterproof design of up to 16 feet, 4K recording with up to 2x slow-mo capture, rear touchscreen display, HyperSmooth video stabilization through the Quik app, and 100 minutes of battery at the highest recording setting.
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